Santiago García Huerdo, LC
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Christ, our King.
Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
My Jesus, I cry out your name so that you will come to meet me. I cry out your name because I want to be healed. I cry out your name because there is nothing else more worthwhile in this world. I cry out your name to tell you that I love you.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 17:11-19
As Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As he was about to enter a village, ten lepers met him and stood at a distance, crying out to him, “Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, ”Go and present yourselves to the priests.“ And as they went on their way, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned and praised God with loud cries, and fell down at Jesus” feet and gave him thanks. This was a Samaritan. Jesus spoke up and said, “Have not the ten been cleansed; the other nine, where are they? Has he returned no more than this stranger to give glory to God?” And he said to him, “Arise, go your way; your faith has saved you.”.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
In Jesus' time, and in fact, not so long ago, leprosy was considered a curse. Whoever suffered from this terrible disease was considered a scum of society and was completely isolated, banished. As you can understand, living in such a situation meant death in life. Therefore, many of the lepers grouped together to share the fear, loneliness, misery, humiliation and exclusion. Just like the group of lepers in the Gospel.
And it is from this that these questions arise: How many times have I not felt excluded, humiliated, afraid, alone? Literally like them. How many times have I not felt like dead in life? Well, it could be that, at some time or several times, we have experienced that, because literally, in this world, we are in a banishment until we get to Heaven and there are many social wounds as well.
No doubt, by this time, the lepers had exhausted all the resources available to them to be cured. However, there was still one thing left, to cry out to Jesus to heal them. And that alone worked.
So the invitation of this day and of all the days we spend in this exile we call life, is to shout the name of Jesus at the top of our lungs, to ask Him with all our heart, to come and heal what we have to heal. And to keep in mind, when we are healed, not to forget to return to thank Him.
«The crowd, marked by physical sufferings and spiritual miseries, constitutes, so to speak, “the vital environment” in which the mission of Jesus is carried out, made of words and gestures that heal and console. Jesus did not come to bring salvation in a laboratory; he does not preach in a laboratory, separated from the people: he is in the midst of the crowd! In the midst of the people! Think that most of Jesus“ public life was spent in the street, among the people, to preach the Gospel, to heal physical and spiritual wounds. It is a humanity plagued by suffering, weariness and problems: it is to such a poor humanity that the powerful, liberating and renewing action of Jesus is directed. Thus, in the midst of the crowd until late, that Sabbath ends. And what does Jesus do next? Before dawn the next day, He goes out of the city gate without being seen and withdraws to a secluded place to pray. Jesus prays. In this way he removes his person and his mission from a triumphalist vision, which misunderstands the meaning of miracles and of his charismatic power. Miracles, in fact, are ”signs", which invite the response of faith; signs that are always accompanied by words, which illuminate them; and together, signs and words, they provoke faith and conversion through the divine power of Christ's grace.». (H.H. Francis, Angelus, February 4, 2018).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
Make an account of those things in which the Lord has healed you and thank Him for them.
Farewell
We thank you, Lord, for all your benefits, you who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
